ROME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5655, 28 August 1896, Page 1

ROME.

BY EMILE ZOLA,

. {Translated By Ernest Alfred VIZETELLT.] (All Eights Reserved.) Chapter X.— (Continued.) While Pierre thus visited the Eoman •churches, he also continued his efforts to o-ain support in the matter of his book, Ms Irritation tending to such stubbornness, that if in the first instance he failed to obtain an interview, 'he went bade again > and again to secure one, steadfastly keep- | ing his promise to call in turn upon each cardinal of the Congregation of the Index. And as a cardinal may belong to several congregations, it resulted that he gradually found himself running through those former ministries of the old pontifical government •which, if less numerous than formerly, are still very intricate institutions, each with its j cardinal — prefect, its cardinal — members, its consultative prelates and its numerous employes. Pierre r repeatedly had to return to the CanceUeria, where the Congregation of the Index meets, and lost himself in its world* of staircases, corridors and halls. Prom the moment he ( passed under the portions he was overcome J by the icy shiver which fell from the old • walls, and was quite unable to appreciate J tbo bare, frigid beauty of the palace, Bramante's masterpiece though it be, so purely typical of the Eoman "Eenascence. He also knew the Propaganda where he had seen Cardinal Sarno j and, sent as he was hither and thither, in his efforts to gain over influential prelates, chance made him acquainted with the other Congregations, that of the Bishops and Regulars, that of the.Eites and that of the Council. He even obtained a glimpse of the . Consistorial, the Dataria,J and the sacred Penitentiary. All these formed part of the administrative mechanism of the Church under its several aspects — the government of the Catholic world, the enlargement of the Church's conquests, the administration of its affairs in conquered countries, j the deciaon of all questions touching faith; morals and individuals, theinvestiga- j tion and punishment of offences, the grant ; of dispensations and the sale of favours. -One can scarcely imagine what a fearful number of affairs are each morning submitted to the Vatican, questions of the greatest gravity, delicacy and intricacy, : the solution of which gives rise to endless j study and research.. It . -is necessary to! reply to the innumerable visitors who flock to Eome from all parts, and to the letters, the petitions and the batches ofdocuments which aro submitted and require to be distributed amongthe various offices. And Pierre was struck by. the deep and discreet silence in which all this colossal labour was accomplished ; not a sound, reaching the '■ streets from the tribunals, parliaments and factories for the manufacture of saints and nobles, whose mechanism was so well greased, that in spite of the rust of centuries and the deep and irremediable wear and tear, the whole continued working without clank or creak to denote its presence behind the walls. And did not that silence embody the whole policy of the Church, which is to remain mute and await developments? Nevertheless what a prodigious mechanism it was, antiquated no doubt, but still so powerful ? And amidst those Congregations how keenly Pierre felt himself to be in the grip of the most absolute power ever devised for the domination of mankind. However much . he might notice signs of decay and coming ruin he was none the less seized, crushed and carried off by that huge engine made up of vanity and venality, corruption and ambition, meanness and greatness. And how far. too, he now was from the Eome that he had dreamt of, and what anger at times filled him amidst his weariness, sLs lie persevered in his resolve to defend himself! All at once certain things which he had never understood were explained to him. One day, when he returned to the Propa- ; g^nda, Cardinal Sarno spoke to him of Freemasonry with such icy rage that he ■ was abruptly enlightened. Freemasonry had hitherto made him smile; he had believed in it no more than he had believed in the Jesuits. Indeed, he had looked upon the ridiculous stories which were current — : the stories of mysterious, shadowy men who governed the world with secret incalculable power —as mere childish legends. In particular he had been amazed by the blind hatred which maddened certain people as soon as Freemasonry was mentioned. However, a very distinguished and intelligent prelate had declared to him, with an air of profound conviction, that at least on one occasion every year each masonic lodge was presided over by the Devil in person, incarnate in a visible shape ! And now, by Cardinal Sarno's remarks, he understood the rivalry, the furious struggle of the Eoman Catholic Church against that other Church, the Church of over the way. * Although the former counted on her own triumph, she tnone the less felt that the other, the

Church of freemasom-y, was a competitor, a very ancient enemy, who, indeed, claimed to be more ancient that herself, and whose victory always remained a possibility. And the friction between them was largely clue to the circumstance that they both aimed at universal sovereignty, and had a similar international organisation, a similar net thrown over the nations, and in like way mysteries, dogmas and rites. It was deity against deity, faith against faith, conquest against conquest: and so, like competing tradesmen in the same street, they were a source of mutual embarrassment, and one of them was bound to kill the other. But if Eoman Catholicism seemed to Pierre to be worn- out and threatened with ruin, he remained quite as sceptical with regard] to the power of Freemasonry. He had.made inquiries as to the reality of that power in Eome, where both Grand Master and Pope were enthroned, one in front of the other. He was certainly told that the last Eoman princes had thought themselves compelled to become Freemasons in order to render their own difficult position somewhat easier and facilitate the future of their sons. But was this true ? Had they not simply yielded to the force of the present social evolution? And would not Freemasonry eventually be submerged by its own triumph— that of the ideas of justice, reason, and truth, which it had defended through the dark and violent ages of history? It is a thing which constantly happens ; the victory of an idea kills the sect which has propagated it, and renders .the apparatus with which the members of the sect surrounded-themselves, in order to fire imaginations, both useless and somewhat ridiculous. Carbonarism did not survive the conquest of the political liberties which it demanded ; and on the day when the Catholic Church, crumbles, having accomplished its work of.civilisation, the other Church, the Freemasons' Church of across the road, will ■in a like way disappear, its task of liberation ended. Nowadays the famous power of the Lodges hampered by traditions, weakened by a ceremonial which provokes laughter, and reduced to a simple bond of brotherly agreement and mutual assistance, would be but a sorry weapon of conquest for humanity, were it not that the vigorous breath of science impels the nations onwards and heips to destroy the oldreligions.

However, all Pierre's jonrneyings and applications brought him no certainty ; and, while, stubbornly clinging to Eome, intent on fighting to the very end, like a soldier who .. will not believe in the possibility of defeat, he remained as anxious as ever. He had seen all the cardinals whose influence could be of iise to him. He had seen the Cardinal Vicar, entrusted, with the dibedse of Eome, who like the man of letters he was, had spoken to him of Horace, and, like a somewhat blundering politician, had questioned him about France, the Eepublic, the Army and the Navy Estimates, without dealing in the slightest degree" with the incriminated book. He had also- seen the- Grand Penitentiary, that tall old man, with fleshless, ascetic face, of whom he had previously caught a glimpse at theBoccanera mansion, and from whom he now only drew a long and severe sermon on the wickedness of young priests, whom the century had perverted, and who wrote 'most abominable books. Finally, at the Vatican," he had seen the the Cardinal Secretary, in sonic wise His Holiness's minister of foreign affairs, the, great power of the Holy See, wliom lie had hitherto been prevented from approaching by terrifying warnings as to the possible result of an unfavourable reception. However, whilst apologising for calling at such a late stage, he had found himself in presence of a most amiable man, whose somewhat rough appearance was softened by diplomatic affability, and who, after making him sit down, questioned him with an air of interest, listened to him, and even spoke some words of comfort. Nevertheless, on again reaching the Piazza of St Peter's Pierre well understood that his affair had not made the slightest progress, and that if he ever managed to force the Pope's door, it would not be by way of the Secretariate, of State. And that evening he returned home quite exhausted by so many ' visits, in such distraction at feeling that little by little he had been wholly caught in that huge mechanism with its hundred of wheels, that.he asked himself in terror what he should do on the morrow now that there remained nothing for him to do — unless, indeed, it wore to go mad.

However, meeting Don Vigilioinapassage of the house, he again wished to ask him for some good advice. But the secretary, who had a gleam of terror in his eyes, silenced him, he knew not why, with an anxious gesture. And then in a whisper, in Pierre's ear, he said: "Have you seen Monsignor Nani? No! Well, go to see him, go to see him. I repeat that you have nothing else to do I" Pierre yielded. And indeed why should he have resisted ? Apart from the motives of ardent charity which had brought him to Koine to defend his -book, was he not there for a self-educating, experimental purpose? It was necessary that he should carry his attempts to the very end.

On the morrow, when he reached the colonnade of St Peter's, the hour was so early that he had to wait there awhile

He had never better realised the enormity of those four curving rows of columns, forming a forest of gigantic stone trunks among which nobody ever promenades. In fact, the spot is a grandiose and dreary desert, and one asks oneself the why and wherefore of such a majestic porticus. Doubtless, however, it was for its sole majesty, for the mere pomp of decoration, that this colonnade was reared; and therein, again, one finds the whole Eoman spirit. However, Pierre at last turned into the Via di Sant/ Offiaio, and passing the sacristry of St Peter's, found himself before the Palace of the Holy Office in a solitary silent district, which the footfall, of pedestrians or the rumble of wheels but seldom disturbs. The sun alone lives there, in sheets of light which spread slowly over the small, white paving. You divine the vicinity of the basilica, for there is a smell as of incense, a cloisteral quiesence as of the slumber of centuries. And at one corner the Palace of the Holy Office rises up with heavy, disquieting bareness, only a single row of windows piercing its lofty, yellow front. The wall which skirts a side street looks yet more suspicious with its row of even smaller casements, mere peep-holes with glaucous panes. In the bright sunlight this huge cube of mud-coloured masonry over seems asleep, mysterious, and closed like a prison, with scarcely an aperture for communication with the outer world. Pierre shivered, but then smiled as at an act of childishness, for he reflected that the Holy Eoman and Universal Inquisition, nowadays the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, was no longer the institution .it had been, the purveyor of heretics for the stake, the occult tribunal beyond ap2Deal which had right of life and death' over all mankind. True, it still laboured in secrecy, meeting .every Wednesday, and ■judging and condemning without a sound issuing from within its walls. But on the other hand if it still continued to strike at the crime of heresy, if it smote men as well as their works, it no longer possessed either weapons or dungeons, steel or fire to do its bidding, but^ was reduced to a mere role of protest^ unable to inflict alight but disciplinary penalties even upon the ecclesiastics of. its own Church. When Pierre on entering was ushered in the reception room of Monsignor Nani, who, as assessor, lived in the palace, he experienced an agreeable surprise. The apartment faced the south, and was spacious and flooded with sunshine. And stiff as was the furniture, dark as were the hangings, an exquisite sweetness pervaded the room; as though a woman had lived in it and accomplished the prodigy of imparting some of her own grace to all those stern-looking things. There . were ao flowers, yet there was a pleasant smell. A charm expanded and conquered evexy heart from the very threshold; Consignor Nani at once came forward, with a smileon his .rosy face, his blue eyes keenly glittering, and his. fine, light hair powdered by age. With hands outstretched, he exclaimed; " Ah! how kind of you to; have come to see me, piy dear son ! Come; sit down, let us have a friendly chat." Then with an extraordinary display of affection, he began to question Pierre: " How are you getting on ? Tell me all about it, exactly what you have done." Touched in spite of Don Vigilio's revelations, won over by the sympathy which he fancied he could detect, Pierre thereupon confessed himself, relating his visits to Cardinal Sarno, Monsignor Fornaro and Father Dangelis, his applications to all the influential cardinals, those ot the Index, the Grand Penitentiary, the Cardinal Vicar and the Cardinal Secretary, and dwelling on his endless journeys from door to door through all the congregations and all the clergy, that huge active, silent bee-hive amidst which he had wearied his feet, exhausted his limbs and bewildered Ms poor brain. And at each successive station of this Calvary of entreaty, Monsignor Nani, who seemed to listen with an air of rapture, exclaimed: " But that's very good, that's capital! Oh! your affair is progressing. Yes, yes, it's progressing marvellously well." He was exultant, thouefh he allowed no unseemly irony to appear, while his pleasant, penetrating eyes fathomed the young priest, to ascertain if ,he had been brought to the requisite degree of obedience. Had he been sufficiently Avearied, disillusioned and instructed in the reality of things, for one to finish withhim? Had three months' sojourn in Rome sufficed to turn the somewhat mad enthusiast of the first days into an uninipassioned or at least resigned being ? However, all at once '' Monsignor Nani remarked : " But, my dear son, you tell me nothing of his Eminence Cardinal Sanguinetti." • " The fact is, Monseigneur, that his Eminence is at Frascati, so I have been unable to see him." Thereupon the prelate, as if once more postponing the denouement with the secret enjoyment of an artistic diplomat, began to protest, raising his little plump hands with the anxious air of a man who considers everything lost. " Oh! but you must see his Eminence; it is absolutely necessary ! Think of it! The Prefect of the Index! We can only act after your visit to him, for as you have not seen /limit is as if you had seen nobody. Go, go to Frascati, my dear son." And thereupon Pierre could only bow and reply : " I will go, Monseigneur." (Tq be continued.)

Fabian Society. — There was a good attendance at the meeting of the Fabian Society last night, when Mr J. Bendely read a paper on the land question. He gave an able review of various systems of land tenure from those prevailing in ancient Palestine and during the dawn of civilisation in Europe to those in vogue in New Zealand f o-day. He advanced examples of the evils arising from land monopoly, evils which, he pointed out, were producing a demand for land nationalisation, in some form of which he looked for the solution of present difficulties and the redress of present wrongs. A discussion followed the reading of the paper. The success of the Christchurch Exhi ?ition has aroused' the Wellington people xp to concert pitch. They are going to have a show of their own, and don't you forget it. There will be a good display of that infallible cure for Coughs and Colds, Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, which is sold by all Grocers and Chemists at Is 6d and 2s 6d 9052 Soap deferred maketh the dirt stick Try Silkstone. • IIP \ Much consternation was caused last winter amongst the medical men in Wellington by the introduction of Woods' Great Peppermint Cure for Coughs and Colds ; that a very bad cough could bo cured by a Is Gd bottle, and a whole family, with a 2s 6d bottle, -vas a serious loss to them. It is sold by all Grocers and Chemists. — Advt. Other jewellers can copy S. Clark and Co/8 advertisements, but not their inimitable 18-caratweddingandengagementrings. Go and see for yourself. S. Clark and Co.. 148; Col-mlio Street. — [Advt.j D..r Jameson's trial is rapidly approach ing As to whether his action was a wise one or not is a grave question. The trial cf Woods's Great Peppermint Cure for Coughs and Colds has been a decided success— it is allowed by all to be unequalled—from all grocers and chemists 5a 6d and 2s 6d. Wholesale Agents, New Zealand Dnu f Company . ■Tir.yr Tv.a, :.'.-, js !iie vary H«?' obtiilnii L-le. AYiimuil La-.*, :u.u LV. c:.v.!